israel's poised for a full scale invasion of gaza while fresh air strikes killed more civilians and international efforts to mediate peace. in the latest escalation jerusalem is targeted by militant rockets for the first time putting creased activity by both sides all the details just ahead. also this hour britain considers the lifting of an e.u. arms embargo to send weapons to syrian rebels and may join france and turkey in recognizing the new opposition group aiming to else to say. and police in england and wales raised the alarm as layoffs are growing workload and no support from the government bring morale in the force to an unprecedented low.

life from the new center here in moscow this is r.t. with international news and comment twenty four hours a day fresh air strikes that killed more civilians in gaza despite israel's pledge to hold fire during a brief visit by the egyptian prime minister to the strip and the us and other militant groups retaliating air raid sirens have gone off in jerusalem as two rockets were launched at the city from gaza. in tel aviv with the latest. saying at the moment neither of those rockets towards jerusalem fell in built up areas and no damage reported either but again it's a very shocking development for many israelis to hear the sirens go off over jerusalem and hear those explosions over the city of course earlier in the day as well rocket fired very close to tell of eve the sirens going off there and an

explosion all of this really very shocking for the israeli population the didn't expect the rockets to reach that far from garza was targeted yesterday as well and all of this coming the background of renewed airstrikes today started off with a very intense bombardment by israeli forces in gaza we also had today of the major event of the visit by by egypt's prime minister to the gaza strip and then also these rocket attacks all of this contributing perhaps to the speculations and to the worries of a possible ground offensive by israeli forces towards the gaza strip pictures on israeli television of columns of tanks and armored vehicles massing near the border

with gaza there's also reports thirty thousand reservists are ready to be deployed we've also got reports of. infantry brigade of quoted leave to finishing their preparations for any assault that may be needed ominous sounding sounding words there and various evidence like that on the ground also statements from various israeli government and defense folks people. talking about a lot of talk about. phase two of the operation and whether that means ground offensive after this aerial bombardment it's not exactly sure but it should be noted that in two thousand and eight to nine operation cast lead which involved a major ground offensive took place at night that was thought to have given the israeli attackers an advantage and there's also been

a statement to the effect that this is far from over say the israelis and that there's a lot more of these kind of operations to come so there's a lot of worries about that when it egypt's prime minister toward garza early in the day went to a hospital while he was there two civilians were killed in an israeli airstrike were brought into the hospital one of them a child and he said later that he held that child in the blood remained on his shirt so shocked was that he was he that he said he couldn't keep silent or that he wanted israeli israel to stop its aggression israel for its part maintaining that it has the right and it will do everything in its power to defend people in the south of israel all of these escalations with the rockets and with the intensified bombardment all of that not pointing the way of the deescalation and possibly

pointing towards a ground war in gaza. and gaza's former health minister told r.t. that the israeli army operation is breaking international law. those studies have proved that israel is using internationally prohibited weapons in quality and quantity they have managed to destroy many buildings and houses using percussion bombs which led to the collapse of many of the surrounding buildings ruger the bodies of those killed were completely burned and this clearly shows they have used prohibited weapons others died in hospitals and we weren't able to diagnose because of their deaths we're talking here about one hundred sixty injured in these attacks the majority of whom were children women and elderly the majority of those who died were children who suffered from seventy five percent to ninety percent burns. israel maintains its conducting a successful operation despite the rising number of civilian casualties in gaza now in my colleague research i spoke to a television official who denied causing collateral damage i want to say that we

have only one goal israel has to defend its citizens i'm sure that there is no state no state no russia and no state and europe and no the united states of america can agree with this kind of situation you know our children our elders are fired by rockets on our schools on our civilians and we target only terrorists with one very simple goal to stop this firing of rockets on our civilians and we will target terrorists until they stop would you care to explain why the palestinian interior ministry has also been targeted in fact that building is basically left in a state of rubble and ruin that's hardly a militant stronghold in fact the the interior ministry is where people get passports visas it's where journalists get their permission to go into the strip why go off to why level the interior ministry the explanation is very simple

unfortunately a mass terrorists while they target our civilians they hide behind their civilians they have. schools now the i.d.f. our army that wants only to defend our citizens targets only terrorists garson is an extremely confined area a very small area probably certainly overpopulated why are so many children being killed by israeli airstrikes if you're going after militants there are no children been heard by idea if only terrorists heard only terrorists are targeted while the visit of egyptian of the prime minister of egypt israel didn't try and didn't attack any target in gather but a mass here is the target israeli civilians while the visit of the prime minister of egypt and i suggest you check the information because there it cannot be people

hurt while the visit of the prime minister of egypt because we didn't also we are certainly going to show you the information you are absolutely right according to the i.d.f. no airstrikes were carried out on the gaza strip juror the during the visit of the egyptian prime minister although somehow two palestinians did manage to die the israeli army and the israeli government will do everything needed targeting terrorists only. to stop the firing of rockets on israeli cities don't really schools israeli children and if we will need some ground operation we definitely will consider so. reaction now from antiwar activists or of the she's head of the new york based international action center joining me from there from new york of course you have been to gaza many times what do you make of the mass militants carrying on with their rocket attacks which is obviously leading to a very harsh reaction from the israelis resulting in civilian deaths in gaza.

it's really a game changer and very significant that for the first time hamas or from gaza attacks have come because israel is used to and has for six decades again and again hit the palestinians with impunity when they were totally and entirely defenseless and bombed again and again even during the time that i was there in in gaza it's almost a daily occurrence israeli attacks and then there's a big offensive such as we saw four years ago and israel is used to carrying out these attacks and the threat now of a ground invasion for the first time really the palestinians were able to follow fire missiles with a range to tell of. jerusalem or to fire on u.s.

supplied israeli planes of course none of this could take place without the support the meetings of briefing beforehand in with washington without u.s. diplomatic military economic support we saw regrown invasion four years ago by views really is what i don't achieve and that's right. oh why did it cheve is more than fourteen hundred palestinian deaths massive destruction of schools of agriculture of small industries it was really the use of white phosphorus of all sort of prohibited weapons were used so this is a severe threat and an important time for people of the whole world to respond to israeli terror which has become so ordinary that it becomes acceptable and it should never never be acceptable what israel has done to the palestinian people

from the very beginning from the theft of the land and the resources to what is going on today against a democratically elected government in gaza which and so the government of hamas. every israeli threat is itself a violation and a war crime and should be denounced and opposed in the strongest way no matter has the same time i do think it's important to recognize as as the world does recognize that the palestinian people have a right to defend themselves they have a right to defend themselves with rockets with digging tunnels with doing all that they can because they really are the oppressed and landless and displaced people and sarah in other hand weakly also you really is a superpower in terms of weapons i would ask you you say the palestinians would defend themselves and they are indeed defending themselves with rockets apparently

being smuggled in from iran now that actually is a serious development isn't it does not actually mean that to iran could be caught up in all of this and perhaps we were talking about maybe a regional war as a result of all of this. i think that the israeli offensive the israeli attack really does threaten wider war but israel is used to as a bully attacking defenseless people and when as in levanon or now we see as in gaza there's any ability to strike back at all then it's awfully new day and that's what we're seeing today the idea of threatening the palestinian people with defending themselves or claiming that missiles coming from the iranian missiles can come from anywhere in the world today and be manufactured also within gaza there

certainly the technology the ability to do this and what has changed it is the missiles are falling in israel they're not just bawling and gaza city they're not just falling on completely defenseless people and that's what the israelis are used to doing and they're used to doing it with full support from the us live from new york sara flounders thank you very much indeed from indeed the head of the international action center thank you for your thoughts. we'll stay with ulti for all the latest on gaza we've got a lot of coverage for you on our website at the moment and also on twitter stream. to form a croatian generals have been acquitted of war crimes in the hague excess for the

p.l.o. said to cries of bias over the bloody division of yugoslavia in one thousand nine hundred five bring you the details on analysis of the controversial trial in just a couple of minutes stay with us this is all to. catalonia wants to get its independence from the rest of spain locals feel that madrid texas all of catalonia economic success is a way putting the region into debt trust me working hard only to have it all taxed away is very aggravating i can see why people are frustrated but the people who want independence have a very odd slogan catalonia a new european state so let me get this straight you want independence but you want to stay in the e.u. is that what you mean what exactly would that change that's not really gaining independence that shifting dependencies staying in the e.u.

means you won't have control of your borders you'll still be on the euro c won't have your own currency you will be able to establish your trade standards those will be dictated to you by brussels and if you don't like the austerity measures from outsiders like in madrid then you might want have a conversation with the greeks because being an independent country in the e.u. won't save you from people messing with your finances all i'm saying is that big truly independent means answer to no one not madrid not brussels but that's just my opinion.

closure is that so much going to be a huge decision on the mark once again causing a military assault would you be israelis would be cheap this time four years ago an invasion called over a thousand palestinian. prisoners. the stairs. miss it's in is a nanny day care my daddy. does a famous reuse dance and blame his oh my save. my money ransom business.

the chance to be soo much brighter if you know about song from phones to pressure. these from stunts on t.v. dot com. he continues here on r t western nations have begun a crusade of support for the syrian rebels britain says it will discuss the lifting of an e.u. arms embargo to start sending weapons to the opposition fronts the first country to recognize the newly formed anti regime an ant's the national coalition is also pushing for supplies of defensive arms the syrian opposition went to london on

friday to lobby for more support to overthrow the assad government britains to see a clear plan of political transition from the announcing could be next in line to officially recognize the new group turkey is a major boost by recognizing the the representative of the country's people middle east commentator and blogger culture it believes there's still no real united voice to speak for the syrians. the decision about anything that happens concerning the future of syria needs to happen within syria and if there needs to be a fundamental change in the direction of the country it didn't used to come from the grassroots and you still have the legitimacy of popular quite dissipate. is how playing by machinations in forcing people to submit to external pressure in order to come together so they get the external legitimacy this divide still stands forces on the ground pretty much doing whatever they want and let alone all the political divisions within after all we've ended with is to

a separate opposition bodies because the syrian national council still exists alongside the national coalition then you are not have correlation so it's a recipe for a more diversion and kind of like call for coherence for moving the country forward or for the country's future. we're going to be a little early here in our team the u.n. yugoslavia war crimes court in the hague has freed two former croatian generals acquitting them of all charges including crimes against humanity to go to vienna a lot of market last year for twenty four and eighteen years respectively charged with killing scores of serbs during the breakup of yugoslavia in one thousand nine hundred five they appealed their sentences i'm a disputing that they have a targeted civilians let's not get some analysis from the boy's mother just served in his store and he joins me live now from washington d.c. well croats are celebrating this verdict today while the serbs are condemning it has this successful appeal that this u. turn come as a surprise not to me it hasn't some people have said they were surprised but back

in april two thousand and eleven when the original verdict was announced by analyzed it as a political verdict and said that it will be more likely could be overturned on appeal just as the tribunal has done to the case of nasser or it should be a muslim commander srebrenica who was similarly convicted then his sentence was reduced then he was acquitted all together the basis of the original verdict was to create the impression among the serbs that the tribunal is legitimate institution that has their interests in mind as opposed to is sorely existing in order to perpetuate this myth about how everything that happened in the balkans in the one nine hundred ninety s. was the result of a joint criminal conspiracy by the serbian leadership what does this do for the credibility of the court. well that court has no credibility to start with and it shouldn't have had any credibility for years. the fact that people are protesting the verdict now as a miscarriage of justice is actually lending the court credibility how would you

why would you be offended by a decision. that is made perfectly in line with what the courts to cause i court mandate which is to blame the serbs for everything they did the court the tribunal did exactly what it was supposed to do we. made a show trial it made a show verdict and then it overturned a show verdict when its usefulness was it at the end. i don't see what can be accomplished by getting worked up over the fact that they did exactly what they were supposed to do so you have pretty firm predictions over the cases of the former leader of one carriage and also the former serbian general recommended it unfortunately back when they were both arrested had force forecast that they would be convicted no matter what happens no matter what sort of evidence. comes forth and in the trial chambers and the matter of how the process actually goes because their actual offense is breathing while serving they were convicted of the advance

in the court of public opinion by the western media of masterminding this grand conspiracy that only exists in the imagination of the ice if you are prosecutors but because it's impossible to prove that it does exist or did it doesn't exist there are certain counts as evidence and therefore they will be convicted the courts mission is to convict them therefore it has to be a want to join the e.u. croatia was expected to join the e.u. next year it will weigh did these missions have an influence over these cool to see. well i would i would argue that croatian verdict had more to do with any sort of serbian ambitions because croatia was greenlit to join the e.u. after defer tickets because germany could then say look here they are fulfilling their obligations day for they've turned over their generals date of. atone for their crimes we have no other we have no obstacle so at the mena and now that correction been confirmed as an e.u. member and will officially become one early next year now all of

a sudden the verdict so longer necessary they have these guys can go scot free and everything is just fine and dandy and killing serbs is not a crime in fact serbs is almost a requirement to join civilized society the way did they define it these days it will never have to. go behind bars and that does pave the way for. serbia's accession to the does not know because they will not be acquitted they will be convicted of masterminding the wars and the genocide and the alleged aggressions and therefore will provide a pretext for for the e.u. to demand ever more concessions of serbia so to the to the point where it already has to give up a portion of its territory it's been illegally occupied in the third independent and there's been hints from the e.u. when they will keep requiring more territory next such as the northern provinces or the areas in the southwest or they have a substantial muslim minority basically they're creating a pretext for the e.u. to demand more of serbia interested in your thoughts and voice and we'll leave it there thank you very much indeed for joining us noise about seven historian in

washington d.c. . the first of a public vote in england and wales for local police and crime commission comes with morale among the nation's law enforcers at rock bottom a recent poll of offices suggested that almost every single one of them felt abandoned by the government nor smith looks at why the thin blue line has the blues . and not the day and not the demos and the police only with old hands to keep control but while the boys and girls in blue do their jobs sometimes even possible conditions the government is reducing their budget by a massive twenty percent the net result more all in the force hits an all time low with just fifteen out of fourteen thousand officers saying they feel the government gives them a great deal of support rachel is surprised but not in a good way. say those fifteen offices are in the force i work in lancashire and i

don't have any offices to fill not been supported by the government at rock bottom baines has lost five hundred fifty officers from her force meaning more work for those left behind and a genuine fear that when people call nine nine nine there won't be anyone left to deal. with the emergency and she's not alone simon pain is chair of the war except police federation says morale hasn't been this low in his twenty six year career with the have a plethora of issues over the last two years where the star or conditions of service with pension reforms or forms in the police service person twenty percent cuts and for give an example here in work prior to this government coming to power we had a thousand and fifty offices we're now down into the seven hundreds we have one of the biggest most way networks in the country and we have no traffic department. so

it's coming from all sides times are so hard in war that the force is even selling off its stations including its h.q. there's no for sale pier but the iconic scotland yard headquarters of the metropolitan police is also on the markets it's a real turnaround just a year ago they met with trumpeting a three billion pound refurbished space was revolving starting now it's downsizing to a new size of the thames nearby and replacing smaller stations with counters in supermarkets and communities that. the force feels it's being disproportionately targeted but home secretary to reason may is on repentant let's stop pretending the police are being picked on they do you feel picked on and critically powerless to protect themselves as legally the police aren't allowed to strike but that could change in

february we are balancing everyone can fall off the rank of chief inspector in england and wales on that very question do they want full industry rights and and the reason that is important is because. members need protecting from what they perceive as an unfair treatment by by this government a police force on strike is the last thing the government needs to take the stairs and not the wind discontents in the face numerous me r.t. . r.t. live here in moscow and it's that time of day when dimitri joins me here in the studio with a business update dimitri the eurozone has once again slipped into double dip recession depression means there's very g.d.p. went down point one percent the first quarter went down point two percent so two quarters in a row means it's a recession officially and in my program in a few minutes we're looking at whether this is the beginning of the end for the

years. we should finally thank you. looters that takes your breath away a few tourists travel to these paul it's no prepackaged comfort but the joy of the wild is guaranteed if gagne's a zoology professor he works in the us and travels to these remote areas in washington every summer as he says he confines untouched landscapes like these anywhere else in the world. we're going off the list below sea line. if i go in the wrong the wrong and surprising and you'll go straight to the water and so we did our plan to get closer to the sea lion and shake its flipper failed. one animal whose par you definitely wouldn't want to shake here is the brown bear

you can literally spot a grizzly here by every small weaver this sort of bears are so full that they have a very good sense of flow the super will have to keep an eye a wind direction at. them and both up all that could be dangerous so we're going to go yes we shall but people require. it. and quiet we went but the wind was not on our side and the bear got away they're usually the first to avoid contact with humans but during spawning time when both people and bears go fishing people often shoot at them to scare them away and every year here in the region you hear about someone being killed by the predators but at the mugger down nature reserve where we are no one disturbs the bears peace and now the local resident who hates his peace being disturbed here is the calories c. eagle in has a will.